The Quotes that Mean the Most
by Silver345
Summary: When the group is asked to pick their senior quotes, they pick the quotes that mean the most to them. But it's not about each of them, its about all of them. Oneshot


So don't hate me, but I didn't add Zay into this. Sorrysorrysorry, I just couldn't find a quote that seemed meaningful enough for him since he hasn't gotten too much character development yet. So this is just the original four, I hope you enjoy it despite the Zay-lessness.

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As senior editor for the John Quincy Adams High School Yearbook Committee, he had collected the senior quotes for everyone in his senior class. All except three quotes that he was sure would mean the most to him. As they sat at Topanga's and their conversation died down for a moment, he decided to bring it up.

"So have you guys picked your senior quotes yet? I'm almost up to my deadline and Mr. Walters says I need to get them all in or they won't appear in the yearbook." Farkle leaned forward in his seat and rest his elbows on his knees. As he looked from face to face, he could see that they all had something in mind. Lucas was the first to speak.

"I think I have mine," he said with a small grin.

"Well why don't you share with the rest of the class, Ranger Rick?" Maya nudged him in the ribs with her elbow, eliciting a chuckle and a widening grin.

"'Perfection is not attainable, but if we chase perfection we can catch excellence,' Vince Lombardi. You all used to think I was 'Mr. Perfect' and I tried to be. But I saw that it wasn't who I was and it wasn't someone I needed to be, but I believe that it made me a better person. I'd say thats a kind of excellence don't you think?" He smiled at each of them in turn. Riley merely smiled widely as he met her gaze, Farkle gave a small contemplative smile as he scribbled down the quote on his notepad and Maya just nodded to herself.

" _That_ sounds perfect." Riley said quietly. Farkle looked up when he finished writing.

"What about you, Maya? Do you have one yet?" The blonde girl looked off into space for a moment and then looked back at him.

"Yeah, I think so."

"You want to share with the rest of the class, ma'am?" Lucas said playfully as he elbowed her back. She snickered as she pulled her sketchbook out of her bag.

"Calm down, I wrote it in here." She flipped through the pages for a moment before settling on a page with a distant smile on her face. Looking over her shoulder, they saw that she had copied a picture of Shawn, Katy and herself that had been taken on the day of her mom and Shawn's wedding. The quote was written in calligraphy below the image. Riley put her hand on her friend's shoulder as she began to read.

"'If opportunity doesn't knock, build a door." Milton Berle. I picked that because I always thought that I was the kind of person who doesn't have any opportunities in life. That I was just a dead end kind of gal. But, here I am, with a full ride scholarship to the California Institute of the Arts. And I'd like to think that it's because of my first real painting. The one that gave me the idea that maybe I had a chance in life."

"The painting of the door. The one I promised that I'd get you through…"

"Yes, Riley. That painting. You did it, I got through. Thank you." Maya smiled and wrapped her friend in a tight embrace. When they pulled away, Lucas put his hand on her knee and she looked at him.

"I told you that you were a great artist then. Now… now you're an amazing artist." She met his eyes and they communicated something that no one else could hear in that moment, just like the day he had first said it.

"How was that, Pippin?" Farkle smirked at her reference and looked up after he finished writing.

"Just the right amount of creative thinking. Riley? Do you have one?" The brunette held her own notebook in front of her face with a slightly confused look on her face.

"I… I have two. I can't decide, will you help me?" They murmured their assent and she cleared her throat before beginning.

"So it's between 'Try to be a rainbow in someone's cloud' by Maya Angelou and 'We can't help everyone, but everyone can help someone' by Ronald Reagan." She looked at them all expectantly. They all looked at each other, but Maya was the one to voice what they were all thinking.

"As much as I love that the first one is a quote by someone who shares my name, I think you should pick the second one. I think that if we look deep down it says more about you than even rainbows can."

"Because rainbows may help some people, but thats all they are. Rainbows. You're so much more than that," Farkle said as he put the dot at the end of the sentence. Riley's lips turned upward into a somewhat sad smile and they could all see the wetness in her eyes.

"Thanks guys. I'm really going to miss you all, you know that right?" She opened her arms wide, indicating her need for a group hug. With borderline tearful smiles all around, they complied, Riley and Maya making up the center while Farkle and Lucas wrapped their arms around both girls with their arms crossing. When they all returned to their seats, Farkle closed his notebook and clipped his pen to the cover.

"I think I've got everything I need. Thanks guys." He stood up to leave, but Riley caught his sleeve, compelling him to sit back down.

"You didn't tell us what yours was," she said, a pleading look in her eye. He looked at Lucas and Maya, who both nodded for him to read it to them. The corner of his lip twitched upward and he reopened the orange notebook.

"'I remind myself every morning: Nothing I say this day will teach me anything. So if I'm going to learn, I must do it by listening.' Larry King." He shut his notebook again.

"I think that theres a lot of things that I'm going to figure out in life, it's just who I am. I figure things out every day. And I think I might like to teach those things to other people one day. But there's more to life than what you can figure out, I need to learn things too. And that will never happen unless I turn the class over to someone else and listen. Maybe if I teach one day… maybe there'll be a kid asking for 'Farkle Time' or whatever they want to call it." He chuckled lightly as he recalled the first day of seventh grade when Mr. Matthew had let him get up in front of the class to speak, probably making a fool of himself, but enjoying his time nonetheless.

And then no one spoke. They all sat there, looking at each other and enjoying the company of their friends. Each recalling some moment along their conjoined timeline that made them feel, whether it be happy, sad or angry or all three. And they remembered the times they felt like they were too happy, or they were a nothing, or they were broken, or too angry. But they also remembered when they felt like a princess, or a something, or loved, or at peace. And they knew that though none of them had said it, there was a quote running through their minds that had come from some old dusty book they hadn't bothered to remember the author of.

Farkle could recall it as if it was yesterday, and in his memory he heard a reluctant blonde girl's voice as she read a book for a project that she didn't care enough to contribute to.

 _Because it's not until you really looked at each other and made a human connection that you can even begin to know each other._

And so they looked back and forth at each other with smiles on their lips and memories on their minds and finally understood the words that had been read from that dusty old book with some unknown author. And they knew that there would never be a quote that was more important to them because it wasn't about each of them, it was about _all_ of them.


End file.
